Official 2k9 Impressions thread

[JaoSming]

Please keep all of your impressions / basic reviews of NBA 2k9 in this thread. Please also state what system you are playing it on.

[Doobie]

Just got it for ps3, any questions for me just ask. =) Game is awesome, most realistic basketball game i've played and the association is just great, I'll get into more detail later.

[arden_05]

Just got it for ps3, any questions for me just ask. =) Game is awesome, most realistic basketball game i've played and the association is just great, I'll get into more detail later.

I have to agree, this is the best and most realistic basketball game I've ever played. I'm sorry to say there is no competition for NBA 2k9 this year.

2k is like 9-0 vs. EA in basketball games. Its all about preferance though, you like what you like. But to anyone who knows basketball there is only one.

If anyone has questions, I have it for Xbox 360.

[hova-]

As I get have to wait till Friday to get it in Germany I have some questions.

Can you edit the Salary Caps as they said before ? How about creating players, still those redish faces?

How about the atmosphere? Playing the demo I thought the fans were a bit quiet. How about defensive signature style? Can you choose it in the edit mode or is it just there for some players?

Would be nice if you could answer them Thanks

[cyanide]

Is the gameplay a noticeable improvement over 2K8?

[hova-]

Well only by playing the demo you can definitely say yes. Tons of new nice animations, better post play, better defense (blocks, steals). Better fouling system (charges!), better ball physique (many loose balls, players cannot catch every ball), very nice new alley oops which are the first in any bball game that are so damn realistic .. not every player can catch an alley oop pass and finish it and also bad alley oop passes get interrupted often.

New leaning jumper which allows you to take a shot while running. New isomotion which I cant say too much about. Players foot planting and dribbling is better now, its easier to turn around and with players like Kobe its easier to go past your defender although you have body contact (going baseline and then up and under has never been so realistic before)

And Finally the lob passes work. Your players will try to get your bigs the ball via lob passes instead of throwing silly bounce passes like last year.

Hope I could help you

[ConfigSys]

any stat overlays during the game (pts,reb,asist,etc)

and i don't mean when u throw FT...

[Oreo.]

Does Nate Robinson have his correct face?

[KSZC]

DoobieKnicks, I know its early, but is there any possibility to check if it is possible this year to play online against people outside of USA? Thanks.

[buzzy]

*random fact*

lulz I just read in the Soundtrack informations:

The Brand New Heavies - Jump ‘N’ Move

It was already in NBA Live 2005

[Ordlad]

Didn't get the game yet since the PC version is not out till late October. However, I must say this game is awesome and the first time I saw the game play on Youtube I thought I was watching a real NBA game!

[JaoSming]

Got to play 1 full game at lunch (after a freeze {xbox's fault} and a quick street game)


Holy Fucking Shit....we are getting this game on PC?


Little touches like the replays during deadballs and such are amazing. I drew a charge with Alston and the announcer said "let's see what he's done so far this game" and showed his assists, shots and steals/whatnot. I got one of those each quarter (4 min quarters).

Timeouts include the College Hoops points of emphasis and are well handled.

Presentation
Graphics

It plays a lot different to me from 2k8, but in good ways, just sucks that I have another learning curve to get over before I'm comfortable starting an association.

Still that was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had playing a basketball video game.

[Patr1ck]

I've only had it for about 20 minutes, I am eating lunch while watchign a cpu vs cpu game of the Clippers at the Magic. It looked a bit slow to me, so I turned the game speed up to 75 and it is looking a bit more natural.

The court graphics leave something to be desired. They look pretty good upclose, but from the gameplay angles, they are pretty blurry and remind me of NBA Live on the last generation console's. My opinion is that they did too much work on the crowd, although this is probably the greatest looking crowd I have ever seen in a video game, other then their animations. I see people in the crowd doing the cabbage patch, and they don't sit down much.

The bench players look a little disinterested sometimes, although they do react to what is happening on the court. Like putting up their hands when their team hits a 3 or clapping after a steal and getting up off the bench and pointing at their teammate(which results in a nice cutscene).

Looks like they upgraded the top 3 plays of the game so they don't just show dunks. I saw a 3 pointer in there.

A few issues I noticed was that Baron Davis kept shotting a bunch of 3 pointers to try and comeback even though they were only down 6 with 3 minutes to go. He basically bricked a bunch of 3's everytime they got the ball back because he would pull up as soon as he brought the ball up court. The only time another player got a shot during those last few moments was after an offensive rebound. However, in knowing the way the Clippers play when they are losing in the final moments, that's pretty much what they do, shoot jumpshots hoping one will fall. Orlando on the other hand was tossing some nice alleyoops to Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis. They shot 5-7 from 3's and shot 76% from the field. Looks like some slider tweaks are in need once again.

The flow of the game is great and Harlan/Kellog actually didn't bore me especially with the breaks in play to comment on how a team or player was playing while highlilght clips were being displayed.

Gotta finish lunch so I can actually play it.

[BigKaboom2]

I see people in the crowd doing the cabbage patch

Sold!

[bee-boy]

sounds like a great game. can't wait till october 21

[[Q]]

Got both games and tired 2k9 first. I tried 2k8 a little last year after being sold on 2k7. my issue with 2k8 was that it had everything bad from 2k7 still in it.

i would say presentation is leaps and bounds ahead of where it used to be. I was Portalnd vs the Pistons. when I stepped out of bounds I heard the infamous Deeeeetroit Baaasketballl. and was immediately annoyed and yet excited. When Sheed touched the ball, you will hear the crowd say "sheeeeed".

i liked the in game plaer highlights, although by the end of the game i was tired of them and i wanted to get back to finishing a close game in the 4th.

however, i noticed like Pdub a high amount of 3 point shooting, especially by Chauncey and Hamilton and it eventually was too much. I brought in Webster to counter and he hit a few but they were on fire and wound up winning by about 10.

honestly the other thread about 2k8 vs 2k9 was a little bullshit. graphics are a lot better even on the closeups, but jerseys are the same from 2k7 and if they're not a star, the faces are only average but definitely better than 2k8.

[Dan's Brain]

So I went to JB yesterday, and was wandering through the video games section, past the sports games onto the discount ones.

Then i was forced to do a classic comedic double take. NBA 2K9 was there in all its glory with a $79.95 discounted price tag.

Point 1: It wasnt supposed to be out in Oz until Friday.
Point 2: I'd already pre-ordered at EB Games for 20 dollars more.

I covered my growing erection, and ran out of the shop, making my way to EB to cancel my pre-order. After a quick, yet deeply dramatic and emotional story (I told the guy that my xbox had been stolen out of my car), I was able to get my 10 bucks back.

I went back to JB, via my house where i grabbed a couple of my games to perform a trade-in. And bought NBA 2K9, three days before i expected to, and for 20 dollars less than i expected. Add this to the fact that the games that i traded in (2k8 and Lego Star Wars:The Complete Thingo) netted me $51 credit towards the game - I was expecting $30 at the most.

So i only ended up paying $28Australian for this game. At this point, after all the good luck I'd had, the game could have been complete shite and i wouldnt have cared.

It's not complete shite.

It is amazing. It looks as sexy as hell, faces and animations are 10 times improved on last year. The little touches are great, players getting a bit too excited on layups find themselves falling into the front line of the baseline crowd, and knocking over the cameraman is one example. Dribbling animations are also much improved.

There's a bit of tweaking that needs to be done to the sliders. CPU shooting is incredibly formidable, and its very easy for the CPU bigs to give their defenders the slip. I'm sure it can be pretty easily fixed.

And speaking of settings, there was another cool thing that i found within the options menu, it's a little section called Regional Settings. At first i thought it was something to do with the DVD settings, but they actually give you the option to show measurements with the metric system, which is a nice little touch.

There's been a few questions about the Create-a-player feature, in particular the skin tones. Skin tones have been improved a lot. And also the blonde hair isnt bright yellow any more. You still dont get a great variety in hairstyles, so the generated rookies possibly still look ridiculous.

All in all, it's amazingly good, and for the first time since 2002, i wont be bothering with Live at all.

[Matthew]

This game is ridiculously good. The in game adjustments by the AI is better then any sports game I've ever seen. I played a game with 90's east vs Dallas and the first half I dominated them with Alonzo inside and Rice outside. In the second half the AI was so much tougher. The jumped the passing lanes, played physical defense and never let Rice get open.

Plus they included Rodman as a Legend, you can't ask for much more then that. This is the first sports game since Madden 05 that I would recommend to anyone in a heartbeat

[Glen]

visual representation of what Matthew said (regarding rodman), nice to see him on a basketball game again...

there are other noticeable added legends this year such as:
- scottie pippen
- patrick ewing
- david robinson
- steve smith
- glen rice
- larry johnson

pros:
- the presentation is much better than last years 2k game
- jersey movements are not fluid-like anymore (added info: you can now see sweat on the chest, back, armpits, and waist part of the jerseys as the game progresses later in the game)...
- arena atmosphere went up a notch
- AI is still the benchmark as far as basketball games are concerned
- blocking by timing is also better this year
- they removed the cheap low post, no traveling call move from last year's game

cons:
- jump ball is randomly tapped now as opposed to 2k8's were in you had to time it...
- i find the camera cuts on replays, on top plays, player highlights, etc. not that focused anymore (e.g. fisher threw an alley-oop to kobe and when the auto replay came up, it still showed fisher's lobbing it to kobe but all i can see was the back of fisher's jersey...
- top 3 plays as of this writing is horrendous, i had a game where there were a lot of good plays that happened, and suprise suprise... top 1 play of the game was a goaltending...
- the new steal animation, i'm personally not a fan of "canned" animations that ea normally place in their nba live games, so it feels a little odd for me to see it this year on a 2k game...

overall, all the small quirks still won't prevent 2k9 to be an awesome basketball game experience...

[bee-boy]

cool i can't wait to play with the legends

[njkobe]

visual representation of what Matthew said (regarding rodman), nice to see him on a basketball game again...

... top 1 play of the game was a goaltending...

but goaltending is really a 'top' play man, especially if it's Shaq goaltended by Nate or sth

[Dan's Brain]

Actually, i did notice one con. After playing a 5-on-5 game in the blacktop mode, all of my quickgame settings had been reset to arcade-modelike settings, ie. no rules, no injuries or fatigue. It's not a massive deal, just one of those little irritants.

[BigKaboom2]

Running plays is still useless, the players move so slow coming off screens that they get no separation from their man whatsoever.

And what's the point when you can just barrel your way to the hoop by holding RT and shaking the left stick wildly, then pass to a guy standing right under the basket (still no positional denial and pretty much any pass can be completed regardless of the angle), pump fake, and lay it in. It goes in 100% of the time - yet another basketball game funneling you toward playing as unrealistically as possible.

Almost all of the post moves are unstoppable as well, definitely online but sometimes the CPU jumps at the exact same time as you and blocks it. But you're not going to see any outright misses unless you're surrounded by 3 or 4 players.

[Patr1ck]

I agree with you about the plays. I noticed it in 2k8, too. Sometimes player will walk to the position where they should have cut to, which would have resulted in them being open, but they walk to their position and the player guarding them just walks with them.

I started playing on Hall of Fame and I could not dribble wildly to the basket, or make unrealistic passes without them being picked off or tipped.

[BIG GREEN]

I decided to buy 2k9 today instead of live like I originally planned. Live has a more enticing gimmick and more teams to play as but in the end..the gameplay won me over. My only gripe with 2k9 is what Andrew said...isomotion is garbage. Other than that...the game is the best in town.